Jackson Hole, Wyoming

Principal Scientist: Howard Quigley

The Felidae Fund has become an active supporting organization and collaborator with the Teton Cougar Project, operated by Craighead Beringia South. Through several months of initial work and collaboration, Zara McDonald of the Felidae Fund and Howard Quigley of Craighead Beringia South have developed important support and exchanges to advance our understanding of cougars. Dr. Quigley has become part of the Felidae Fund Advisory Group and will assist in the development of Felidae Fund projects and programs, and the Felidae Fund will work directly with Howard and his field crew, supply financial support, and integrating and developing study techniques important for the Teton Cougar Project and the additional projects in which The Felidae Fund is actively involved.

A central focus for the conservation and management of cougars is the need for additional knowledge on their population dynamics, their impacts on prey, and their interactions with humans and human development. In addition, their interactions with other large carnivores are almost completely undocumented scientifically. The Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem is an ideal location for increasing our understanding on all of these aspects of cougar conservation.

From 2007 through 2010, the Teton Cougar Project is continuing its intensive field effort to describe cougar ecology in the southern greater Yellowstone Ecosystem. During this period, Project activities will be intensified to more thoroughly document the population and demographic dynamics of cougars in the Jackson Hole area. At the same time, the Teton Cougar Project will continue to examine cougar predation, quantify cougar behavior associated with human development, and develop methods by which to scientifically document interactions between cougars, wolves, grizzly bears and black bears. Information obtained through this work will be essential to understanding cougar ecology, cougar-carnivore interactions, and to the long-term conservation of carnivores in the Greater Yellowstone Ecosystem and beyond.